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Peugeot goes back to its heritage with Pikes Peak race

June 28, 2013

Check out a screen grab from the film "Climb Dance" shows that Peugeot had a history at Pikes Peak, even in 1989. Photo by YOUTUBE

For Peugeot, competing at Pikes Peak is nothing new. In fact, the event is integral to the French company’s history. This latest 875-hp twin-turbo version of the 208 that Sebastien Loeb will drive up Pikes Peak is the latest in a long line of French lions that have tackled the classic hill climb. One of former Peugeot boss Corrado Provera’s favorite sayings was: “There is a lion on the front of the car and a lion in our hearts.”

Tomorrow, Loeb and Peugeot will prove that this is the case once more.

The company’s first attempt at Pikes Peak was back in 1987 with the diminutive 205: the car that transformed Peugeot’s commercial fortunes after it was launched in 1983 and then went on to become a legend on the world rally stage thanks to the outlandish Group B T16 version. It was as an indirect result of that rally program that the idea of doing Pikes Peak first came about.

The Group B category was banned at the end of 1986 after a spate of accidents, which many people said were the result of the cars getting too fast. Peugeot’s response was to make the 205 even faster. But there was then the question of what exactly to do with it.

With more horsepower and a lengthened chassis, the 205 T16 Grand Raid (as it was then called) was packed off to Africa to compete on the 1987 Paris-Dakar. It promptly won. Twice as it turned out -- because it was victorious in 1988 too.

By then, Peugeot’s engineers had gone into creative overdrive, boosting the 205 T16’s power output to 600 horsepower and grafting on a colossal rear wing to create the Pikes Peak version as well in 1987 (which reverted to the standard wheelbase for better maneuverability through the hairpins). Even that though wasn’t enough to beat Audi’s legendary Quattro -- driven by Walter Rohrl -- which is why Peugeot decided to come back with a longer and even more powerful car in 1988, based on the 405.

The 405 T16 Pikes Peak was the archetypal Dakar car. It contained technical trickery such as a four-wheel steer system and produced 660bhp from its two-liter engine. It weighed just 950 kilograms and stormed its way to a top speed of 210 kph.

The rest is history. Peugeot won in ’88 with Ari Vatanen and then again in 1989 with Robbie Unser. Vatanen’s record run of 10 minutes 47.220 seconds would go on to star in a movie, "Climb Dance," which used cutting-edge cinematic techniques to bring Pikes Peak to a whole new international audience. The short film won four major awards, and earlier this year it was remastered in celebration of Vatanen’s win 25 years ago. “Like most people, I saw the film when it came out and said to myself that it must be cool to be able to do that,” said Loeb. “I never dreamed that one day it would be me doing it though.”

Watch the remastered film below.

That’s how the whole legend of Peugeot and Pikes Peak really started. And tomorrow, the lion will roar once again.